This whole idea that political operatives can slip in tyrannical measures in omnibus bills and then place the onus on a politicized justice system to deal with it is completely intolerable.
This is tantamount to treason and should be treated and punished as such. We need to place the burden on those that are entrusted with the authority to legislate to make sure their legislation rises to the standards and limitations set forth in the constitution.
Unfortunately, this is like asking a murderer to hold himself accountable for murder. Our legal system has been compromised.
The constitution is compromised. We must start over with an explicit statement of citizen sovereignty.
Citizen sovereignty was stated implicitly in the DoI and the original Constitutional document. It was overwritten within the Bill of Rights (5th amendment). What was intended to be a limitation on government actually set the government over the citizen (government is sovereign, citizens are vassals). All fuckery since then was made possible by that.
The only viable path to prevent this from ever happening again (within the framework of what we have, not counting completely different possible solutions) is to do the same thing, but with an explicit statement of citizen sovereignty (in accordance with Natural Law). In such a situation, a "bill of rights" becomes redundant and confusing.
The argument over the Bill of Rights isn't new the Federalists and Anti-Federalists debated this at length. A "tenth amendment" sovereignty clause for the States and the individual/citizens therein seemed like a good idea at the time, yet leaving it to inference has resulted in nothing but extreme political consternation as the judicial despots debate the degree to which the government can be authoritarian and dictatorial.
We have had over two hundred years to see how the plain language of the constitution can be contorted and perverted to mean exactly what it doesn't and thus opening the door to the limitation of those natural rights by the overbearing force of government tyranny.
Enough is enough.
I did not know that there was a record of a meaningful debate on the issue at the time. I will have to look into that. Do you have any specific places to look for these arguments?
You will get no argument from me about this.
Or this.
This in an important weakness to draw attention.
Agree totally with OP. If I can dream outloud, a 1 page or 300 word limit on any bill. If it can't be done that concisely, it probably does not need to be done.
"It will slow them down!"......and???
Politicians are not necessary in a cons
Oops...under a proper constitution members of the public will serve.